Starting the year America and the world saw the Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots to claim the 2025-26 National Football League (NFL) world championship title.
To say that sports and leagues like the NFL are popular TV viewing is an understatement. Following the Seahawks’ victory, Sportsmediawatch.com reported the “big game” pulled a 39.7 rating and more than 125 million viewers across NBC family of broadcast brands.
Football isn’t the only sport that pulls big numbers of TV viewers. Yahoo recently picked up a story from The Hollywood Reporter that states the game one broadcast of the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs NBA Championship game averaged almost 17 million viewers. Over in the world of hockey, the Las Vegas Golden Knights’ game one Stanley Cup Finals win over the Carolina Hurricanes produced nearly 5 million viewers.
Yes, there seems to be more quality scripted series, reality television, and straight-to-streaming movies available from everyone from the traditional network broadcasters to the streaming services, but none of them move the ratings needle like sports.
The Numbers Back What Your Eyes are Seeing with TV
Realistically, there’s never been a better time to be a fan of television. There are some great scripted shows such as the “Game of Thrones franchise,” as well as HBO’s “The Pitt,” Netflix’s “Black Mirror,” and Apple TV+’s “Ted Lasso” and “Pluribus.”
The traditional broadcast networks also offer shows such as ABC’s “High Potential,” CBS’ “Tracker;” Fox is the network home of “The Simpsons,” and NBC is the home of the Chicago trio of shows: “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med,” and “Chicago P.D.”
Despite the plethora of fun and quality content that is available, sports are what attract people to TV.
Validating the importance of sports in today’s modern era of home theater, immersive audio, 4K, and HDR (high dynamic range), is a recently published story from The Hollywood Reporter.
The story breaks down television ratings based on the Nielsen definition of a TV season, which is stated to be from Sept. 14 to May 20.
The Hollywood Reporter’s findings were that NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” was the top show with more than 23 million viewers. Following “Sunday Night Football” was Netflix’s “Stranger Things” with more than 22 million views, and wrapping up the top three was ESPN’s, “Monday Night Football” with nearly 16 million viewers.
A more targeted look at the rating figures, the story breaks down the viewing habits of adults 18-49. In this demographic “Sunday Night Football” and “Monday Night Football” took the top two spots. Also finishing in the top 10 was ABC’s “Saturday Night College Football” broadcast.
Taking TV sports viewing to the next level are events like the World Cup. Reports place global viewership at more than 1 billion people. With the World Cup currently taking place in the U.S., American interest in soccer is peaking. Yahoo Sports is reporting that Fox had over 18 million viewers for the U.S. Men’s national 4-1 victory over Paraguay.
How to Maximize Television Viewing Experiences
It’s no secret that today’s generation of televisions and video displays are better than any previous generation of product.
Setting the stage for the current home video market are manufacturers like Quantum Media Systems. The Irvine, Calif.-based manufacturer offers state-of-the-art, customized video walls that are not only used in residential applications, but also commercial applications such as post-production and cinema.
The company’s XDR Micro LED Display is a fine-pitch display solution that was developed to produce a wide color spectrum and high levels of dynamic range. The XDR Micro LED product line also utilizes proprietary image processing and military-grade construction techniques.
Circling back to the point of Quantum Media Systems’ customization capabilities, the product line can be configured in 16:9, as well as CinemaScope, and Ultra-Widescreen for theater rooms. Custom aspect ratios and configurations are also available for applications that include sportsbooks, video gaming and digital wall art displays.
What’s nice about a solution from a benchmark manufacturer like Quantum Media Systems is the MicroLED product line can perform just as well in a normal room with ambient lighting, as a dedicated home theater space. This performance trait supports big-screen sports viewing in a variety of environments without compromise.
Feeding the public’s appetite for quality live sports content, broadcasters are increasingly offering higher quality programming. Recently, the NBC Universal broadcast of the 126th U.S. Open Golf Championship from Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York, was available in the HDR10+ high dynamic range format.
With the World Cup currently going on until July 19, Fox the American broadcast partner of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), is upscaling the native 1080p to 4K. The World Cup matches are available in 4K on FOX, FS1, and the FOX One app.
Getting back to the NFL, most games are available in 1080p, with select games upscaled to 4K. The NBA does not offer games in 4K, meanwhile, the NHL’s Boston Bruins’ broadcast partner NESN offers games in 4K. DirecTV also offers select NHL games in 4K, along with HBO Max, and Amazon Prime.
To learn more about KMB Communications’ clients, including Quantum Media Systems, check out this link.